You have text, not dates. Copy a blank cell, select the cells with the
dates, and Edit|Paste Special... choose Add. This will convert them to
numbers. Format to suit.

HTH
Kostis Vezerides

On Mar 13, 8:22 pm, "broux" wrote:
When I retrieve a column of dates from a web query into Excel, it
returns the following:

2007-02-16 15:31:26
2007-02-16 15:39:18
2007-02-16 15:49:42
2007-02-16 15:40:02
2007-02-16 16:00:03

No matter how I try to format it, it refuses to accept the date
formatting. Tried formatting the cell. Tried paste special -
format. By accident, I hit F2 to edit the cell, and simply hitting
Enter, the date format changes to

2/16/2007 15:19

When I accidentally activated the cell, Excel recognized it as a date
and turned it into something useful. So, what is going on - and what
can I do to convert these seemingly nonsensical dates into a format
Excel recognizes as a date?